Strategic agenda
Strategy review
The board conducted the annual review and refinement of CLARB's strategy to ensure ongoing relevance. Each year, we take time to revisit our organizational strategy. This helps us to ensure we continue to assess and evolve our strategy based on the progress we’ve made and new information and learning that we gain throughout the year. The board reviewed foresight, orthodoxies, progress on goals and an environmental scan as key inputs. The board developed new milestones to track progress over time.
Business agenda
Annual meeting
Chief Strategy Officer Veronica Meadows reviewed the annual meeting agenda and the board prepared for the membership discussion around “Expanding the CLARB Community” to ensure member input is considered as the board explores this issue.
The board’s discussions this year acknowledged that our membership is critical, yet we must expand our community to have greater impact to our mission. Rather than focusing only on formal structures, the board emphasized belonging, connection and identity across the professional lifecycle. The board adopted a ‘shepherd’ mindset — positioning CLARB as a guide for candidates, practitioners, boards and partners. Importantly, the board agreed that CLARB must broaden its ecosystem, while keeping member boards as the central focus of our community, and pursue partnerships with organizations like ASLA and IFLA to expand our impact among our member jurisdictions and beyond.
The board validated that CLARB needs to deliver value to four core groups: candidates, licensed professionals, boards and international partners. For candidates, that means increasing support and resources. For practitioners, it means delivering more value through the CLARB Record. For boards, it’s reinforcing their governance role while adding community-building value. And internationally, it’s collaborating on standards instead of imposing them. Next steps include gathering input at the annual meeting, piloting small-scale engagement ideas, and clarifying CLARB’s unique role versus where partnerships can add strength.
LAC member/leadership candidate experience
As is CLARB’s way, we make it a priority to regularly assess our programs, processes and governance — not only when challenges arise, but also when things are working well. Following our review of the effectiveness of the 2019 Bylaws changes, and with additional updates adopted in 2025, it was timely that we also take a close look at one of CLARB’s most important committees — the Leadership Advisory Council.
Last year, the LAC Experience Work Group was formed to evaluate how we can strengthen the experience for both LAC members and leadership candidates, and to optimize our processes for recruitment and selection. The work group has completed its review and developed recommendations for consideration.
The board heard and approved recommendations from the LAC Experience Work Group to strengthen the experience for both LAC members and leadership candidates, and to optimize our processes for recruitment and selection.
Database and website
As part of CLARB staff’s commitment to keeping the board regularly updated on key organizational initiatives, Director of Business Systems Andrea Elkin provided a progress report on CLARB’s IT projects. Over the past year, staff have advanced major work on our database, website and email platforms, each designed to strengthen our operations, enhance the customer experience and better support member boards. Andrea shared an updated timeline for the new website and database.
CLARB Impact Fund
CLARB’s Impact Fund was first established in 2021 after the board expressed interest in aligning a portion of our reserves with CLARB’s core principles and values through impact investing. Since then, the fund has been guided by the values we identified together and has operated under the policy revisions the board adopted at that time.
We are now at the three-year mark the board set for reviewing both the values that guide the Impact Fund and whether additional contributions should be made. The board considered and approved the Finance Committee's recommendation for the future direction of CLARB's Impact Fund and related policy refinements.